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Caramelized Banana Upside-Down Cake

Caramelized Banana Upside-Down Cake — This upside down cake is super moist thanks to the combination of sour cream, buttermilk, and vegetable oil. It’s so easy to make, and the caramelized banana flavor is impossible to resist!

The Best Banana Upside-Down Cake

I love caramelized bananas. The depth of flavor is like no other. Browned butter, brown sugar, and the natural banana sugars create the best tasting bananas ever.

I wanted to pluck each and every one of the bananas off the cake. I used restraint while I served the cake at a party, but it wasn’t easy.

I had never had a banana upside-down cake but figured why not. This upside down cake recipe is a spinoff on my Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, which is one of my all-time favorites. It’s like having bananas foster, one of my favorite desserts, baked onto the cake.

While baking, the bananas caramelize in a butter and brown sugar bath, giving the cake it’s signature glistening top. There’s so much rich browed butter and alluring caramel flavor, which makes the cake irresistible. Interestingly, there are no bananas in the cake base itself, just on top, adding a perfect amount of banana flavor that goes so well with the caramel.

The buttery caramel sauce seeps down into the cake after inverting, which adds even more moisture to an already very tender and supremely soft cake. Take the cake to the next level by drizzling salted caramel sauce over the top. May as well go all out.

I find that banana bread gets better on the second day after the flavors marry and this banana cake was no exception. If you have a few ripe bananas to use up, no one will complain when they see this come out of the oven!

Banana Upside-Down Cake Ingredients

For this ooey, gooey banana cake, you’ll need the following basic ingredients:

Unsalted butter

Light brown sugar

Ripe bananas

All-purpose flour

Granulated sugar

Baking powder

Salt

Egg

Buttermilk

Sour cream

Vegetable oil

Vanilla extract

How to Make Banana Upside-Down Cake

Melt the butter in the microwave, then pour it into a 9-inch springform cake pan. Use your fingers to make sure the butter is in every crevice of that pan, then sprinkle with brown sugar. Lay the sliced bananas over the brown sugar, making sure bits of banana are covering every inch of that pan.

Then, make the cake batter by combining the wet and dry ingredients in two separate bowls, then stir them together. Pour the batter over the bananas and bake the cake on a cookie sheet (just in case anything leaks from the springform pan).

You’ll know the banana upside-down cake is finished baking when it’s golden on top and the center is set. Remove it from the oven and let it cool for at least an hour before inverting and serving.

How Ripe Should My Bananas Be?

You actually don’t want your bananas to be too ripe when using them for this upside down cake. If you use bananas that are overripe, they’ll fall apart in this cake. Your bananas should definitely be on the riper side, and just barely starting to get brown spots.

Should I Line my Springform Pan with Foil?

Maybe! Older pans may be prone to leaking, which means your banana upside-down cake won’t have as much caramelized sauce on top. If you’re nervous about your pan leaking, feel free to line the bottom with aluminum foil to be safe.

Tips for Making Banana Upside-Down Cake

If you don’t have sour cream on hand, feel free to use plain Greek yogurt instead. And if you don’t have regular buttermilk, you can use powdered buttermilk in its place (just add water to the batter to even things out. I’ve given instructions in the recipe card below).

Note that it’s so important that you let this cake cool in the pan for at least an hour before inverting it. If you try to invert this cake too quickly, it’ll likely fall apart and you’ll have a huge mess on your hands.

Also, you should use a springform pan for this, not a regular 9-inch cake pan. A regular cake pan will likely be too shallow for this cake recipe, and you definitely do not want this cake to overflow in the oven!

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9-inch springform cake pan with cooking spray; set aside. A regular 9-inch round cake pan is likely going to be too shallow and is not recommended.

In a small, microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter, about 1 minute on high power.

Pour the butter into the cake pan. Use your finger to run a bit of butter around the side of the pan to ensure it’s well-greased.

Evenly sprinkle the brown sugar over the butter.

Fan banana slices (cut side down) out from center of pan like the spokes of a wheel covering the entire pan with banana slices. The less gaps and space between bananas, the better. Use short pieces to fill in gaps.

Add 8 to 10 short banana pieces around sides of pan (cut side down), spaced uniformly; set pan aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, optional salt; set aside.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together the next 5 wet ingredients (through vanilla).

Add the wet mixture to the dry, mixing lightly with a spoon or folding with a spatula until just combined. Small lumps will be present, don’t overmix or try to stir them smooth.

Gently turn batter out into prepared pan, being careful to not disturb the banana slices on the bottom or sides of pan. Fill pan to about 3/4-full. If you have a little extra batter, discard it rather than overfilling your pan (was not a problem for me but pan sizes and depths vary).

Place pan on a cookie sheet as insurance to catch anything that may leak from springform pan and bake for about 38 to 40 minutes, or until center is set, not jiggly, lightly golden browned, and springy to the touch. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. Only go down about 1-inch with the toothpick, not all the way to the bottom where you’ll hit gooey caramelized bananas.

Place pan on a wire rack and allow cake to cool for at least 1 hour before inverting, slicing, and serving. Optionally before serving, drizzle with salted caramel sauce. Cake will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Even More Easy Cake Recipes:

Easy Yellow Cake with Buttercream Frosting — This is the easiest, from-scratch yellow cake and it tastes like a million bucks. This yellow cake recipe always turns out supremely moist, springy, soft and fluffy cake thanks to buttermilk, sour cream, and oil.

Strawberries and Cream Poke Cake — This Strawberry Poke Cake uses just four ingredients and is a hit at parties and potlucks! It’s a moist, refreshing dessert you’ll definitely want seconds of!

83 comments on “Caramelized Banana Upside-Down Cake”

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This is my absolute favourite cake recipe ever- it is SO GOOD!I’ve made it dozens of times and it’s always such a winner. Easy, perfectly moist, great texture and omg, all that toffee-banana goodness on top is just to die for!I keep emergency buttermilk and sour cream in the freezer now so i can just whip it up any time I’ve ever got old bananas sitting around in my fruit bowl …….which tends to happen a lot more than it used to now lol because damnit this recipe is way too awesome!!!! :D

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Please note: I have only made the recipe as written, and cannot give advice or predict what will happen if you change something. If you have a question regarding changing, altering, or making substitutions to the recipe, please check out the FAQ page for more info.

Hi, I'm Averie and I'm so glad you've found my site! You'll find fast and easy recipes from dinners to desserts that taste amazing and are geared for real life. Nothing fussy or complicated, just awesome tasting dishes everyone loves!